The invention relates to an armrest for the seat of a work vehicle, and more particularly, to an armrest which can be adjusted both vertically and horizontally for an operator's specific anatomical characteristics.
Traditionally, the operating controls for tractors and other large work vehicles are mounted raised assemblies directly secured to the floor of the operating compartment on both sides of the-operator's seat. It has been found to be convenient to mount operator controls, such a switches levers and knobs, on an armrest next to the seat. The seat is usually adjustable so that the operator can optimize both comfort and visibility. In addition, many seats are provided with shock absorbing suspensions which moderate shocks to the operator by moving the operator supporting portions of the seat in response to shocks on the vehicle. However, after the seat adjustment, the controls may not be at the optimal location for the operator resulting in either a change in seat placement or discomfort in operating the vehicle. Furthermore, as the operator supporting portions of the seat move in accommodating shocks to the vehicle, the positioning of the controls relative to the seat continually change resulting in additional operator discomfort.
To overcome this problem, a seat assembly with an adjustable armrest has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,308. But, the armrest here is adjustable only vertically relative to the seat.
Other adjustable armrest mechanism have used complicated and bulky four bar linkages. But, four bar linkages allow only one vertical position for each fore-and-aft position. It would be desirable to have an adjustable armrest which permits more than one vertical position for each fore-and-aft position in order to accommodates the correlation of an operator's elbow to hip distance to an operator's forearm length.